Reliable, relevant, targeted and
timely environmental information is
an essential element in implementing
environmental policy and management
processes. Such information can come
in many formats — with indicators
being a long-established approach
to distilling detailed information into
trends that are robust and easily
understandable by a broad audience.

This figure shows 2008 total imports and exports of the EU27 with the rest of the world in physical terms. There is a massive asymmetry in trade between EU-27 and the rest of the world in the category of ‘Fuels and mining products’. EU imported in 2008 over six times more resources than it exported.

Humanity’s growing appetite for bigger houses, overseas travel, food and consumer goods is the main cause of our most pressing environmental problems, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which considers the links between the environment and consumption.

This figure shows avoided net emissions of greenhouse gases from the waste management sector in EU-27 (minus Cyprus), Norway and Switzerland. More detailed, the figure shows the difference in the net emissions in years 2008 and 2020 scenarios to the base year’s (1995) net emissions